The Call of Duty series used to pride itself on realism and its grounded nature—quite literally considering the exosuit-heavy games from the past few years.
Older titles replicated real-world events and would even give real quotes when you died to showcase that CoD can never replicate a proper war. That has obviously changed. Now, the series focuses on high-octane gunplay and satisfying killstreaks to keep players hooked. There is nothing wrong with this, but it can result in certain mechanics and decisions feeling more jarring than they should. With the introduction of Modern Warfare’s Warzone, here are 10 things that make no sense about the new Battle Royale game mode.
10 Buy Stations
Call of Duty killstreaks have never made sense when you think about it. How does killing 25 people give you permission to call in a nuclear strike?
Killstreaks start to make even less sense in Modern Warfare’s Warzone mode. Players find money on the map that can be spent on various Buy Stations scattered across the map’s various regions. How such a small station can provide a UAV, airstrike, or a sentry gun is a mystery. It is even stranger how the station’s Loadout Markers give the player perks as if grabbing curated guns gives your character superpowers.
9 Narrative
Battle Royale games are built with the main purpose of being fun, as every video game should. However, some of that fun can also come from some sort of narrative or plot to provide a justification for what you’re doing.
And you’re killing dozens of squads in Warzone for what reason? There isn’t any. The US and Russian forces decided to deploy 150 people into a warzone that is filling with gas for no reason at all. This doesn’t impact the game in any negative way, but it makes absolutely no sense from a logical perspective on why this many soldiers would be sent out to a toxic warzone when only one squad is expected to live.
8 Phones
Warzone houses a few secrets and easter eggs that players have already uncovered. The community hasn’t figured out a few of them, though, one of which is the game’s seemingly useless phones.
Scattered across the level are various interactive phones that players can find. They make an audible tone when interacted with, but that appears to be it. Six have been found by the community so far, but their use is currently unknown. There are also interactive computers that do something similar to the phones, again with no one knowing what they do. Perhaps they are tied to opening the various bunkers on the map?
7 Gas Ring
Sending 150 soldiers to an open arena and expecting only three of them to survive is crazy enough. What is even stranger is considering how the gas cloud works.
Every Battle Royale game includes a ring that encloses on the map as the match continues, encouraging the remaining squads to fight each other instead of camping. From a mechanical perspective, the Gas Ring makes sense. For a series reboot that focuses on realistic, gritty gameplay, having a gas ring slowly envelopes the map seems strange. Who is spreading it? Why not just envelop the whole map in gas? Why not send the squads in with gas masks? These are either irrelevant or easy to dismiss when looking at it mechanically, but it doesn’t make any sense from a realism perspective.
6 Skydiving
On to mechanical aspects that don’t make any sense, the way skydiving is handled in Warzone is both exhilarating and perplexing.
Paradoxically, hitting terminal velocity while falling makes your character move slower than when not at top speed. One strategy to get around the map quickly is to deploy your parachute just to cut it, then freefall with your weapon out. Your character would give Superman or a Thundercrash Titan in Destiny a run for their money with how fast you move. When you get close to the ground, pop your parachute and you won’t take any fall damage and reach the ground before anyone else. Why it works this way is unknown, but it certainly makes no sense.
5 Vehicle Fragility
Having Vehicles in a Battle Royale game is a refreshing change from the constant running and gunning other games offer. There’s just one problem: the vehicles in Warzone are fragile.
They can take a few bullets before going down, just as you would expect. If you collide with a building or object at any moderate speed, though, then kiss your vehicle goodbye. Colliding with any building will cause any vehicle to explode, whether that be a buggy or helicopter. Use vehicles in Warzone just for getting around and not for running enemies over, otherwise, you risk the entire thing exploding.
4 Bullet Drop
Bullet drop is nothing new to FPS games. Titles like Battlefield and ARMA incorporate bullet drop to replicate reality and to balance certain weapon archetypes.
The bullet drop in Warzone is so insubstantial that it might as well not exist. Bullets have drop off that’s noticeable for assault rifles, SMGs, and pistols, but the likes of sniper rifles or other high-velocity guns are nearly hitscan. Take a sniper rifle and try to headshot someone by aiming straight for their head. No matter the range, you will likely get a confirmed hit if your aim was true. Why have it in the game then if guns like snipers and other high-velocity weapons—the weapons that need it the most—aren’t affected by it?
3 Bunkers
Similar to phones and computers, there are bunkers scattered across the Warzone map that can be interacted with. They ask for a code, but they simply beep when interacted with.
Currently, no one has found the code required to open these bunkers up. Interestingly, these bunkers are included on Infinity Ward’s website for Warzone, which shows these bunkers having a 120% loot rating—translating to tier 6 loot. Could this contain Juggernaut suits and missing Modern Warfare killstreaks? No one knows, but the fact that no codes exist for them yet and phones and computers seem to not interact with them makes these bunkers a complete mystery.
2 Multiplayer Maps
Veteran Call of Duty fans can spot the likes of Overgrown, Vacant, and Killhouse. Warzone contains most of Modern Warfare’s iconic maps in some shape or form.
CoD is no stranger to doing this, incorporating Black Ops maps in Black Ops 4’s Blackout mode, but how are these maps connected together? The older MW games never gave the impression these maps were located just kilometers from each other. This is awesome from a fan service perspective, but it makes no sense in terms of topography or continuity with the older games.
1 The Gulag
You might have died by a barrage of bullets, a clean headshot, an orbital bombardment, or maybe miscalculated a fall. Whatever it was, you always make your way to The Gulag.
It makes sense that you would be captured if you went down and bled out, but to be put here after having your body torn to shreds by an RPG? That seems far-fetched. More than that, The Gulag gives players lethal equipment after a few seconds if no one has died, likely to help break stalemates. In practice, this means players camp until they get a lethal grenade, then they use said equipment to instantly down the other player to get back into the fight. It makes Gulag matches feel drawn out, tedious, and the victor seems arbitrary instead of who had better gun skill.
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